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Carlsen went on to slam Indian legend Viswanathan Anand, who serves as the governing body’s deputy president, and FIDE’s inability to be flexible and their tendency to interpret the rules in a narrow manner.
Magnus Carlsen refused to change his attire. (Pic Credit: X/FIDE_chess)
Norwegian GM Magnus Carlsen hit out at the FIDE top brass over his disqualification from the Rapid event at the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship in the USA last week.
Carlsen was disqualified by the arbiter Alex Holowczak, as the GM turned up to the event in a pair of jeans, against the stipulated dress code for the event, and refused to change his outfit.
“Well, first of all, let’s go back to a couple of days ago. I did have some choice words for FIDE in my interview with you. And I would say that it was a bit imprecise,” Carlsen began.
“I definitely mean it when it comes to certain people in FIDE. No question about it,” the Norwegian added.
He vented his frustration of the mishandling of the situation and that he was about to take a flight away from the USA, but was asked to hold on by his father to take a chat with FIDE boss Arkady Dvorkovich.
“I think the situation was badly mishandled on their side. And I was about to basically book my plane tickets and get out of here. My father said that we should maybe wait until the morning to make a decision to speak to the FIDE president, Arkady Dvorkovich, whom we have a good relationship with,” Carlsen revealed.
“Him actually being asleep when this happened meant there were no grown-ups in FIDE,” he said.
“You can argue whether I am or not. But there was nobody even slightly willing to have a conversation,” the 34-year-old said.
Carlsen went on to slam Indian legend Viswanathan Anand, who serves as the governing body’s deputy, and FIDE’s inability to be flexible and their tendency to interpret the rules in a narrow manner.
“We had long conversations with Anand yesterday and others, which generally didn’t lead anywhere. It was generally the same answer, that arbiters are basically robots who cannot think on their own, who have no way to even deviate slightly from. I don’t even know if I broke any rules. I still haven’t gotten a clear answer on that,” said Carlsen.
“They were saying that jeans were generally not allowed. If it’s generally not allowed, that must mean that there must be exceptions. And if I, with a decent attempt at an outfit apart from that, didn’t meet that exception, I don’t see what would, frankly,” he added.
“So I’m not even sure I broke any rules. But anyways, they decided to take that opportunity to pursue a very narrow interpretation of a rule. Apparently, there was no room for discussions or anything,” Carlsen continued.
“Anand said very clearly that he didn’t know that he had any opportunity to do anything past, you know, go with the arbiters’ honestly draconian decision of not pairing me. And that means that he was, for all his good qualities, not ready for this job. That’s what I feel.”
Days after the five-time world champion was cleared to take part in the Blitz event after FIDE’s decision to permit players to turn up and compete in jeans.
Dvorkovich revealed the altered FIDE policy on the matter and stated that he intended to handle a trial method going ahead.
“I took the decision to trial an approach to provide more flexibility to FIDE officials in judgements regarding the suitability of the attire,” Dvorkovich said.
“The principle is simple: it is still required to follow the official dress code, but elegant minor deviations, that may, in particular, include appropriate jeans matching the jacket, are allowed,” he added.
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